November 2010

November 30, 2010

I apologize that there haven't been many Revit Structure posts as of late as I just returned from my 6 week sabbatical... over which I got married. So you'll start seeing Kathryn Langan instead of Kathryn Poulos, but it's still me! :)

Today I wanted to provide some links for additional information on using Robot Structural Analysis with Revit Structure. I've had questions come up from time to time, and there are some good resources in scattered locations - so I wanted to pull out a bunch for reference.

November 25, 2010

One of the enhancements included in Revit MEP 2011 to help improve overall performance was a settting to turn off the electrical load calculations for spaces. You can get to this settng by clicking on the Manage tab, selecting Electrical Settings under the MEP Settings pull-down, and highlighting the Load Calculations heading.

When the calculations are turned off, the electrical loads are reported as "Not computed", and since the calculations are not constantly updating in the background, users should note an improvement in performance.

The purpose of this post is to emphasize that this setting is turned off by default in the templates delivered with 2011. Why is it important to be aware of? Well, we have received a few cases where a user will place light fixtures in their project, generate a lighting analysis schedule for spaces, and discover that the Actual Lighting Load is reporting a zero value. Some users assume that the light fixture must be outside the space or placed incorrectly. After reviewing the model, it turns out that the load calculations were turned off in the Electrical Settings. As you can see from the images below, as soon as the "Run calculations for loads in spaces" is turned on, the loads show up in the schedule.

November 24, 2010

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. I love the food, family and football. What is a holiday without a little parametric fun.

A Revit Turkey! I decided to do a little building in Project Vasari, but then because its Thanksgiving tried to build a parametric Turkey. Its nothing too fancy, but fully adjustable and changable based on your mood. You can fatten it up, slim it down, make the eyes pop, whatever you fancy.

Even though it was built in Vasari, you should have no trouble opening it in Revit 2011. I haven't tried it, but you could analysis this gobber and see if it is sustainable.

For a little Holiday fun, go ahead and try to build your own Thanksgiving Parametric Turkey or other favorite Thanksgiving item (parametric mashed potatos anyone?), pass them my way (email them to revitclinic@autodesk.com) and the best ones will get a little love on the blog. Try and get them to me before Christmas though.

November 22, 2010

You have a floor plan view containing callout views. You have previously adjusted the callout head tag location. When you duplicate the view as dependent, the new dependent view callout heads appear at the default location.

Datum elements and section \ callout elements appearance can vary between the primary and dependent views. This behavior is in place to accommodate conditions such as around a matchline, where the callout head location may need to be adjusted between the two views.

However the element types can have varying behavior when new dependent views are created. I wanted to organize the most common scenarios below:

Callouts

The callout tag location can vary between the primary and dependent view. If you modify the tag location, and then duplicate as dependent, the new dependent view callout orientation will be located at the default horizontal. From there you can always adjust the location between views as needed.

Sections

The section tag and tail location can vary between the primary and dependent view. In this case if you modify the head or tail location and then duplicate the view as dependent, the new dependent view will match the same location as the original view.

From there you can always adjust the location between views as needed.

Reference Planes \ Grids \ Levels

Datum elements such as reference planes, grids and levels can vary between dependent and primary views as long as they are set to 2D Extents. Otherwise a 3D Extents datum element will appear the same between the primary and dependent view.

If a view contains 2D Extents elements, and is duplicated as dependent, the new dependent view will match the location[s] of the original view. From there you can adjust the location between views as needed.

Project Vasari is a design tool with analysis capabilities available via the cloud. Vasari gives you the power of Revit parametric change engine with conceptual modeling and adaptive components. There isn’t even anything to install!

You can simply download the EXE from labs, double click on it, and get started. Throw it on a thumb drive if you want and give it to those designers.

It looks a lot like Revit, so if you know Revit, you will know Vasari. If your new to Revit, it does includes a number of great videos to get you started.

Project Vasari includes the conceptual Energy Analysis tools that were part of the Autodesk Revit 2011 Subscription Advantage Pack, but Vasari also includes a solar radiation tool as well. Pretty cool stuff.

Oh – Vasari files are compatible with Revit 2011. You can open your Vasari file in Revit 2011 and open a Revit 2011 file in Vasari.

November 08, 2010

Some of these quick tips add up in reducing your rendering times for Revit; so I’ve included some of my favorites below. If you have a good one not included here please add a comment!

1. Watch the View Size / Printer DPI Size

Because the Width / Height of the rendering for the “Printer” Resolutions are linked to the Crop Region size of the view, make sure to verify this setting. A large crop region combined with a high DPI will add to the rendering time. If possible reduce the crop region size or lower the DPI to 75 or 150 DPI.

2. Limit the number of lights you are rendering

Lights are one of the largest contributors to rendering times. You can selectively turn off artificial lights not necessary for the view, groups of lights, or use the section box approach in #3 below.

3. Use a Section Box

By enabling a section box in the view and cropping unnecessary geometry you can greatly reduce the rendering times. Because section boxes also work for linked files, daylight portals and lights this is a great approach to cut down rendering times. See #3 in my previous post here.

4. Keep custom material maps to a reasonable size

Avoid using very large dimensional image files, or large file-size images for the Material > Render Appearance > Image. As a reference you can open some of the included maps in a folder such as:

Render a region of the view to limit the geometry which will be rendered. Keep in mind this does not limit the light[s] calculation outside the region for rendering as a section box would.

For example, an artificial light outside the region will still be calculated and show up on the rendering dialog artificial light count.

7. Linked Files

If you don’t need geometry in a linked file temporarily unload the link prior to rendering. Because geometry and lights are calculated and will render from a link even if it is not visible in the immediate view this can greatly extend the rendering time.

8. Avoid adjusting the Render Quality Settings higher than necessary

Keep in mind even the included “Best” render quality setting limits the values to the following:

Image Precision (Antialiasing): 8 out of 10Maximum Number of Reflections: 4 out of 100Maximum Number of Refractions: 8 out of 100Blurred Reflections Precision: 7 out of 11Blurred Refractions Precision: 5 out of 11Soft Shadows: EnabledSoft Shadow Precision: 6 out of 10Compute Indirect and Sky Illumination: EnabledIndirect Illumination Precision: 7 out of 10Indirect Illumination Smoothness: 8 out of 10Indirect Illumination Bounces: 2 out of 5Daylight Portal Options: Not Enabled

Setting these higher than the “Best” setting, can substantially add to the rendering process time.

9. Daylight Portals

If the current view you are rendering does not need to utilize daylight portals for windows, doors and curtain walls they can be disabled. For example, if the view does not include a window illuminated from exterior daylight you could un-check this option.

November 05, 2010

You have a curtain wall mullion profile family, which is located at the center of the reference planes.

When loaded into the project however, the Width on Side 1 \ 2 is not centered.

This issue should be related to the reference plane[s] and profile geometry being moved from the default location [reference a new “Profile-Mullion.rfa” family]. The default origin is the intersection of the 2 reference planes.

To resolve this you can copy & paste aligned a line from the intersection of the 2 reference planes in the default template to your specific mullion profile, similar to a previous post for section tags. Then simply move your profile geometry to the original location based on the copied reference.

Alternatively, verify Defines Origin in the Reference Plane Properties is checked. If it is currently un-checked, check the parameter and reload the family. After either approach the curtain wall mullion should show the correct width alignment dimensions: